Country: Argentina

Address: Sector F – Box/taller F17, Campus UNPA-UARG, Piloto Rivera y Av. Gregores, 9400 Río Gallegos, Santa Cruz, Argentina

Website: http://ita.uargadmin.uarg.unpa.edu.ar/

Who we are

The AEA or Area Energías Alternativas (Alternative Energy Group) of UNPA (National University of South Patagonia) is located in the Santa Cruz province in the South of Argentina (Patagonia), and is a member of ITA (Instituto de Tecnología Aplicada). Our group has members in Río Gallegos and San Julián and has been performing measurement campaigns and developing measurement systems for small wind and hybrid (PV, Wind and Diesel) systems since 1995, together with our colleagues in CERE (Centro de Estudios para los Recursos Energéticos) at the nearby Universidad de Magallanes in Punta Arenas, Chile.

What we do

We have performed research and development on local wind an PV resources, and installed a number of monitoring systems for Rural Schools (Escuela Rural Las Vegas in 2000, Escuela Rural Agua Fresca in Chile / UMAG in 2001/2002, Escuela Rural Glencross in 2009) and for wind-PV water pumping in small rural communities (FIC Project for Porvenir, Tierra del Fuego in Chile through CERE/UMAG, 2014), which has given us experience with this kind of installations. We are also working together with INTA (Agricultural Technology Institue) in small systems for rural posts. We have dictated a biannual 40-hr seminar on Renewable Energy since 1998 at the University, which from 2013 has become an optional semester course for the careers of IRNR (Natural Resource Engineering) and Chemical Engineering.
Our group has developed in constant interaction with other groups in local or nearby Universities, such as UMAG in Chile and UNComa (Comahue) in Neuquén, so we find that networking with people from other countries and similar interests is a great means of progress for our area and its mission. Since 2014 when we had Jon Sumanik’s from Wind Empowerment visit a lot of new opportunities for exchange and development have evolved, such as the WE meetings at Athens, recently in Luxembourg and within some months ( end 2016 ) the WE meeting in Neuquén, these activities are of great importance for us.
AEA / UNPA can aid with wind power knowledge, experience in microcontroller programming and power flow control, and capabilities for other renewable energy or combined systems, also in educational or social related experience as with rural groups and schools, requirements and best solutions for isolated power systems at these sites. We are currently involved in one of the Wisions-supported SEPS projects for 2016 (Open Hardware / PowerElectrnics for Small Wind & Solar).